Roger Denio Baker, M.D. (1902–1994) (Denio rhymes with Ohio) was the founding chair of the UAB Department of Pathology from 1944 to 1952. Twenty-one years ago, Baker’s family established the Roger Denio Baker Endowed Support Fund in Anatomical Pathology in his honor. Each year, an award is made from that fund to the resident or fellow who exhibits the greatest skill in the disciplines of Anatomic Pathology.

This spring a substantial contribution from the Baker family has insured that the Baker prizes can continue to be awarded annually in perpetuity.

“The UAB Department of Pathology is grateful for the ongoing support of the Baker family for our programs, and in particular our trainees,” said George Netto, M.D., Robert and Ruth Anderson Endowed Chair. “We have a long history of dedication to our education programs and the training of future pathologists. This support is vital to enhancing these training programs.”

The Baker Prize was first awarded in 2002 and, until 2019, was presented annually, at a year-end reception honoring trainees, by David Remember Baker, Dr. Baker’s eldest son. Mr. Baker died March 20, 2020, and we will all miss the excitement he expressed at seeing his father’s legacy continue. Current UAB Pathology faculty who received the Roger Denio Baker Prize include Shi Wei, M.D., Ph.D., Professor, and Associate Director, Anatomic Pathology, and Brandi McCleskey, M.D., Assistant Professor, Forensic Pathology.
David Remember Baker, J.D.

Dr. Baker was the first full-time faculty member of the new, four-year University of Alabama School of Medicine, having been hired by the new Dean, Dr. Roy Kracke, also a pathologist. He was a 1928 cum laude graduate of the Harvard Medical School, which he followed with training in Pathology at Johns Hopkins University and service on the faculty of the Duke University School of Medicine. After his stint in Birmingham, his peripatetic career took him back to Duke, then on to medical schools at LSU and Rutgers. When he left what would become UAB, the Pathology Department had grown to five attending pathologists and three residents. One of the attending pathologists was Dr. J. A. Cunningham, founder of the Cunningham Pathology Group in Birmingham.

The Department of Pathology remains grateful to the Baker family for this generous gift and their ongoing support.